In an announcement Thursday, Fayetteville Mayor Mitch Colvin said he will not run for reelection this fall.
Colvin, who was first elected in 2017, previously said he had not ruled out running again. In a statement Thursday, he said he wanted to spend more time with family and on his businesses.
He said serving as mayor was “honor of my life” and thanked his family, friends and the Fayetteville community for supporting his leadership.
“While we’ve accomplished and grown the city so much during my time as mayor, for everything there is a season,” Colvin said. “As I look to the future, I plan to continue working to make Fayetteville a better place by contributing to the community, but I’m also looking forward to spending time with my family and working in my business.”
The filing period for municipal elections begins July 7. But four people have said they will run for mayor in the Nov. 4 election. They are:
- Five-term City Council Member and Mayor Pro Tem Kathy Jensen, who represents District 1
- City Council Member Mario Benavente, who is serving his second term representing District 3
- Previous mayoral and legislative candidate Freddie de la Cruz
- Former City Council Member Paul Williams
Colvin is the city’s longest-serving Black mayor. He served two consecutive terms on the Fayetteville City Council from 2013 to 2017. In his mayoral elections, he continually outperformed competitors by wide margins.
In his four terms as mayor, Colvin has concentrated on economic development, infrastructure and job creation, bringing an Amazon distribution center to Fayetteville and attracting a multi-million dollar titanium plant. He oversaw the successful completion of the $41 million Segra Stadium and welcomed the minor league baseball team Fayetteville Woodpeckers. Colvin has also advanced programs to support small businesses and minority-owned businesses, establishing the Fayetteville-Cumberland Regional Entrepreneur and Business Hub.
Colvin has also worked to increase affordable housing opportunities in the city and address homelessness through initiatives like the Day Resource Center. He has also supported the expansion of the Fayetteville Regional Airport, and the passage of two voter-approved parks and recreation and public safety bonds totalling $132 million.
Fayetteville must ‘choose success,’ outgoing mayor says
In a short address Tuesday night, prior to his announcement, Colvin urged residents and local decision-makers to commit to a clear vision for the city’s future, emphasizing collaboration, investment in infrastructure and schools, and a shift away from a past “lack of vision” that he said held the community back.
Colvin’s speech, delivered at the “Fayetteville 2050” event, reflected on the past quarter-century and encouraged residents to be “forward-thinking” as the city plans for the next 25 years. He said fast-growing cities like Charlotte and Raleigh have benefitted from bold leadership and a willingness to embrace change and diversify their local economies.
Colvin also emphasized Fayetteville’s successes over the past decade: 44% growth in investment in parks and recreation and infrastructure, totaling about $11 million annually; $1.5 billion in new and outside investments; a newly-established $5 million fund to expand small businesses.
“At the beginning of this century, the early 2000s, our city was at the cusp of a transformation,” Colvin said. “Those who are familiar with this community remember the Airborne and Special Operations Museum was just built in a place where formerly topless bars and strip clubs once stood. Boarded up in vacant buildings were the seeds of the progress that we’re seeing today up and down our downtown. And now today we are reaping the benefit of watching the fruition of a restored and vibrant downtown which we continue to see grow each and every day.”
Still, Colvin said much more is needed to make Fayetteville a desirable place for future generations to live and work.
“This was a plea for us as a community to decide today,” Colvin said near the end of his speech. “What type of community do we want to leave for those that are coming behind us? What will the next 25 years in our community look like?”
Fayetteville at a crossroads
Colvin’s plea comes as downtown Fayetteville has faced difficulties in the past few years restoring the revitalization momentum of the early 2000s. County commissioners last week scrapped plans for the new Crown Event Center, a performing arts venue that was slated to be built downtown. Construction began months ago and the project had already attracted new business owners. The abandoned site, much like the empty storefronts downtown and the city’s stalled attempt to build a commercial center atop the Hay Street parking deck, is a reminder for many of what Fayetteville could be, but has not yet become.
Colvin said a few key decisions made by leaders in the 1960s and 1970s led to the current stagnation — particularly the call to have I-95 bypass the city, which later contributed to I-40 being routed through Benson and not Fayetteville.
“That lack of vision and resistance contributed to the relocation of I-40 just 30 miles up the road to a small town a tenth of our size, in Benson, but a major highway that connects the East Coast to the West Coast,” Colvin said. “The decision for whatever reason at the time to decline county-wide water from the federal government and infrastructure has left us today trying to make decisions to figure out how it is that we can get caught up in places like Gray’s Creek.”
Colvin compared Fayetteville’s current crossroads to those experienced by Raleigh and Charlotte, the state’s largest cities, before their economic booms in the latter half of the 20th century. The Research Triangle Park transformed Raleigh, he said, attracting investment in science, medicine and technology through a collaborative effort of government, universities and businesses. Charlotte pivoted from its textile- roots in the mid- to late 1980s to become a major financial hub.
“Successful communities didn’t just become successful,” Colvin said. “They became successful because they planned for it and they committed to it.”
Will Fayetteville have its own upswing? The mayor didn’t provide many specific examples of future plans, but he stressed a few key areas: infrastructure expansion and investment, particularly pushing the Public Works Commission to become a regional power provider; advocating for Fayetteville’s connection to the planned highway I-685, which city leaders hope will connect Fayetteville to the Piedmont Triad and eventually the ports of Wilmington.
Colvin also stressed the need for the city to work hand-in-hand with Cumberland County, tFort Bragg and the other eight municipalities in the county. He also advocated for an increased focus on the quality of local schools, arguing education quality is a strong driver of economic development.
“The will of a few led to our community and put us at a huge disadvantage,” Colvin said. “But thankfully, today, we have an opportunity to right all of our wrongs.”
Government accountability reporter Evey Weisblat can be reached at eweisblat@cityviewnc.com or 216-527-3608.
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